Hippie

Hippie refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture that found its earliest beginnings in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s. The developing hippie ethos soon influenced the Beatles and others in the United Kingdom and Europe, and they in turn influenced their American counterparts. Hippies, along with the New Left, and the American Civil Rights Movement, are considered the three dissenting groups of the American 1960s counterculture. Eventually, the hippie movement extended far beyond the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, affecting Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and many other countries.
Hippies were originally part of a youth movement composed mostly of white teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 years old. Inheriting a tradition of cultural dissent from the bohemians and the beatniks, hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, in the United Kingdom opposed nuclear weapons and in America opposed the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of non-Judeo-Christian religions, championed sexual liberation, promoted the use of psychedelic drugs to expand one's consciousness, and created intentional communities, leading some to describe hippies as a new religious movement. By 1968, self-described hippies had become a significant minority, representing just under 0.2 percent of the U.S. population.

Hippies opposed "political and social orthodoxy", choosing a "gentle and nondoctrinaire" politics that favored "peace, love, and personal freedom", perhaps best epitomized by The Beatles' song, All You Need is Love. They perceived the dominant culture as a corrupt, monolithic entity that exercised undue power over their lives, calling this culture "The Establishment", "Big Brother", or "The Man". The hippie ethos spread worldwide through a fusion of early rock, folk, blues, and psychedelic rock. Hippie culture also found expression in literature, the dramatic arts, and the visual arts, including film, posters advertising rock concerts, and album covers.